This article will contain spoilers for the Stranger Things franchise. Please click away if you haven’t watched the series and intend to do so in the future.

Stranger Things, a series nearly a decade in the making, finally wrapped up on New Years Eve. Its finale was long awaited by fans of all age groups, locations, etc. For some, it delivered. For others, it was a complete letdown.

In the finale, the Hawkins gang attempts to stop Vecna by preventing him from bringing the two worlds together. Lucas, Steve, Jonathan, Nancy, Mike, Will, Joyce, Robin, and Dustin race to the top of the radio tower in the Upside Down, presumably to send some kind of threat/message to him. Kali and Eleven attempt to penetrate Vecna’s mind with the help of Max, who knows her way through due to her previous experience there. Hopper and Murray plant C4 in the Upside Down, intending to detonate it the moment Vecna falls.

Very quickly, things begin to go wrong. The Abyss falls on the radio tower, nearly killing Steve. Vecna tricks Hopper into believing Eleven is in danger, causing him to break El’s isolation chamber and force her out of Vecna’s mind. Vecna also reveals El’s plan to commit suicide to Hopper, who then threatens not to set off the C4 should she go through with it. With Eleven away from the kids she, Kali, and Max were saving, the children are left vulnerable, and Vecna finally enters the traumatic cave he’s been scared of all season. Vickie and Max, hidden in the radio shack, are found out by the military and promptly taken into custody. On the gang’s way to kill Vecna and as a result of the monster’s surroundings (the traumatic cave), Will has a hivemind moment that results in him trying to redeem Vecna, to no avail. Eventually, things end up okay, and after a great number of random introspective conversations, the final battle ensues.

They lead the mindflayer into a canyon, where Nancy shoots at it from below while the others attack from above. Steve and Dustin get slimed on as they spear the spider-like monster, which houses the Pain Tree (where Vecna kept all the children he kidnapped) inside its abdomen. El shows up saddened by the loss of her sister Kali, and enters the mindflayer to fight Vecna. They’re following a hivemind method similar to Vecna and Will, but for Vecna and the mindflayer. Eventually, they win out and all is well, the end, yay.

Except…there’s still an hour of the episode left. That’s right, the big, final battle that’d been building up for five seasons took less than an hour to complete.

After Vecna is killed, the whole gang returns to Hawkins, celebrating their victory. The C4 has been detonated, and they’re ready to be rid of the Upside Down and the Abyss and all the strange things. But of course Dr. Kay and her minions are there waiting. The gang is ambushed and taken hostage. When they look for El, she’s nowhere to be seen–because she’s standing back at the portal, ready to sacrifice herself as she originally planned to do. Too late, the gang realizes what she’s doing, and, after sharing one final emotional moment with Mike, El dies alongside the Upside Down.

Eighteen months later, the kid gang graduates, despite what I’m sure must have been a terrible attendance record. The teen (now adult) gang reunites on a rooftop to reminisce about their new jobs, lives, etc. To the excitement of many, Hopper and Joyce get engaged at an Italian restaurant. During a symbolic game of DND, a thinly veiled metaphor reveals Mike’s optimistic theory that El still lived out there, far away where she’s safe from the toxic governments which have hunted her her whole life. And the series closes with a snapshot of Holly and the other kids taking up the DND mantle, representative of a whole new generation.

As Buzzfeed pointed out, there were many plot holes yet to be tied up with the finale. Additionally, many fans felt underwhelmed with how quickly the final battle went down and how most of the characters seemed to get over El’s death far too easily. Many times in Season 5 Volume 2 and the finale there were oddly placed emotional conversations that only slowed the pacing of the ending. A final complaint I saw echoed throughout the fandom was about El’s ending–both the ambiguity of whether she died or not and why she even chose to sacrifice herself at all.

But the overall finale was deeply symbolic, mirroring the beginning of Season 1. Matching my thoughts exactly, Grace Yang (10) said, “I didn’t like the ending at first, but after I understood it, I realized it was so good and symbolic.” And it delivered in one other major regard: it gave Vecna an almost redemption that showed he wasn’t all monster. That’s something Grace Acevedo (10), a fan who hasn’t yet seen the finale, wanted when she said, “I’m looking to see Jamie Campell Bower/Vecna’s background and story in the final season.”

Either way, the finale was the end of Stranger Things, unless you believe in the Conformity Gate theory or consider the documentary coming out on January 12th part of the storyline. But you might be left wondering: where can I see my favorite Stranger Things actors next? Let’s see.

Finn Wolfhard (who played Mike Wheeler) will be in a few projects here and there, including Crash Land, but has made it clear he’s focusing on his music career. He and his band, The Aubreys, are planning a 2026 summer tour!

Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven Hopper) will be reprising her role as Enola Holmes in Enola 3, where the detective will be sleuthing on the coast of Malta.

Sadie Sink (Max Mayfield) is entering the MCU with Spiderman: Brand New Day, though her specific role has yet to be revealed. She’s also set to act in a play of Romeo and Juliet.

Maya Hawke (Robin Buckley) plays as beloved mentor Wiress in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. Joe Keery (Steve Harrington), her friend on the show, will be switching genres from scifi to survival in Cold Storage, releasing on February 13, 2026.

Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas Sinclair) is taking on a high-profile animation movie with Stephen Curry in GOAT, which McLaughlin will star in.

David Harbor (Jim Hopper) has a busy schedule with three big-time movies on the way: Silent Night 2, Thunderbolts, and Avengers: Doomsday.

Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin Henderson) plans to move into edgier territory, diversifying from the nerdy and lovable Dustin. He’ll voice Lucky in an adaptation of George Orwell’s notorious Animal Farm and star in an untitled Hulu comedy.

Noah Schnapp (Will Byers) is focusing on other things entirely, though he isn’t completely separated from acting. Right now, he’s finishing up a business degree at Wharton and pursuing entrepreneurial ventures.

And finally, Natalia Dyer (Nancy Wheeler) will star in a highly-anticipated queer, coming of age movie titled Chestnut. She will also play a role in God’s Country, a countryside-set survival horror already being compared to The Revenant.

Will you watch any of these movies?